Countershaft for horizontal mill

[Shawn]

Well I got the jackshaft mounted and the mill running and learned a few things along the way. The taper on my mill is a MT2 and probably not as ridged as it could be. I was getting some vibration in the cutter and tried just about everything to sort it out. The outside of the spindle was running true within 0.0005 but the inside was a bit less than perfect. I had a MT2 tapered reamer so I lightly reamed the taper and then read that you should never tighten the bolt that clamps the arbour and spacers down unless the overarm is installed and holding the arbour. Makes sense and I'm guessing both myself and the previous owner managed to damage the taper slightly by tightening the cutter down first then putting the connecting plate on between the overarm and the arbour. Seems to be running much more true now. I have to make the countershaft assembly a bit more rigid laterally but that will be a simple set of adjustable feet to give it more side to side stability. Will get that done and a coat of paint on tomorrow. Overall I'm pretty happy with the mill and the speeds I'm getting, it now sounds like it's cutting and not burning up cutters anymore. I've started to design an outboard support that will clamp to the table and overarm/arbour connector plate. It's my understanding from what I have read that this will be a big improvement in overal rigidity. I can't find my little handheld rpm guage (even though I just found it the other day!!) when I do I'll figure out exactly what rpm I arrived at with this setup. 



 

Cheers
Shawn